Zion National Park, North Rim Grand Canyon National Park
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We had a warm night in Zion. But about midnight, the wind kicked up really strong. It would blow so hard it would wake me up. But, it wasn’t a cold wind and I slept for the first time in many days without a sweatshirt and without socks.
Breakfast was eggs and potatoes. We packed up reasonably quickly and headed out for more exploration of Zion. We went back up the canyon so we could stop at the parts we missed. First stop was Weeping Wall.
Weeping Wall is a large overhang about a quarter of the way up a cliff face that is dripping water in great quantities. The path is about .25 mile long up a little canyon. In the canyon was a wide variety of plant life, including a small swamp! Very interesting. There is a ledge under the rock where you can look out across the canyon. The sun was still pretty low in the sky and the view was pretty dramatic.
From there we headed up the road to where the climbers had been the night before. Sure enough, they were back. Higher up this time. The platform they had before was back. We still don’t know where they went last night.
We continued up the canyon to the end where I got out to get a picture of the sign I described yesterday telling of the various hazards of hiking the Narrows trail. From there we headed back out the canyon, stopping at the White Throne viewpoint. White Throne is a large (huge) whitish rock, that one of the early pioneers claimed was the mountain he had been looking for all his life and named it White Throne. The sign said that the early settlers tended to name things with religious overtones because they were so overwhelmed with the beauty. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that all the early settlers in this area were Mormons and tended to assign religious significance to just about everything, including rocks. In every place else we’d been besides Utah, the names were Devil’s this, and Hell’s that.
At this viewpoint we saw another set of intrepid wall climbers. Three this time. They were about halfway up the side of another ridiculous cliff face. Now, if they got religious, I could understand it.
We decided we could afford one hike and still make the Grand Canyon so we stopped at Emerald Pools. It promised a moderate hike of 2.4 miles. The pools are formed by yet more water flowing out of the rocks higher up. The pools weren’t actually all that interesting but the view across the canyon was spectacular. The trail to the lower pool was easy. The trail to the higher pool was not all that steep but was covered with rocks and stuff. It was defined as “unmaintained” which I could easily believe. It was a little more difficult. Three little old ladies who started out after us, had to turn back.
The upper pool wasn’t all that interesting either. But the location was amazing. It was at the base of a sheer cliff wall that was easily 1500 feet high, if not 2000 on two sides of the pool. There was no way to get a picture it was so big.
We headed back down for the mile and a half hike back to the truck. Then headed for the park entrance. We stopped at a few more viewpoints to look at the layered rocks we’d missed on the way in, and to check out checkerboard mesa. Then off to the Grand Canyon.
We stopped off in Kabob to replenish the seriously diminished film supply, mail postcards, and get more groceries and ice. Then an hour and a half or so drive to the north side of the Grand Canyon. We passed a sign that said the Grand Canyon campground was full so we nabbed a spot in one just outside the gate before going in. Lucky we did too, because it filled up before we got back.
We headed into the park and went to the lodge area. The first view of the canyon wasn’t the “oh, wow” part. Pretty much colored canyon walls like we’d seen before. But when we saw the view from the lodge it was impressive. Every time we’d get a new view of it, it was like “BONG” scenic beauty, “BONG”, amazingly huge, “BONG”, amazingly deep. We wandered out to Bright Angel point which sticks out into the canyon and took a bunch of pictures. It was so big, you could barely see the other side in the haze. You couldn’t see the bottom where the river was. You couldn’t see the end of it off in the distance. It’s BIG!
We saw signs for a couple of hikes which take you down into the canyon and potentially up the other side. They sound like fun, if your idea of fun is walking for 10 hours through a 5000 foot vertical climb, on each end! The rim is 8000 feet and the valley floor is 2400. But people do it all the time. There’s a ranch/hotel at the bottom where you can stay so you can take two days if need be. Most people do.
It was late in the day so we decided to head out to one of the other points to watch (and photograph) the sunset. It was about 20 miles. Along the way, we stopped at a few more viewpoints and got a few more eyefuls. BONG! When we got to the end, I gathered up all my camera stuff, tripod, film etc., and hightailed it out the quarter mile or so path so I wouldn’t be too late like at Bryce Canyon. It’s a little hard to do loaded down with camera gear at 6000 feet, but I managed to get there in time. I fought my way against the railing through the crowd of photographers and video cameramen to get a spot.
As it turned out, it wasn’t the best day for photographing the canyon at sunset. Very hazy but not many clouds in the sky. The sunset was okay. The pictures were unimpressive.
We headed back to the car in the dark and drove back to the campsite. It took about an hour to get there. On the way we noticed a sign for the south rim. It’s 200 miles from here. We’ll have to boogie to get there in the morning tomorrow. The plan is to see the south side until about 4, then try to get to the meteor crater near Flagstaff before it closes, then start heading for home via Las Vegas. Don’t know if we’ll be able to make it.
Dinner was Dinty Moore beef stew which was pretty good and a nice change. It’s getting cold again. Looks like I’ll be sleeping in socks and sweatshirts again tonight.
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